Is Publicly-Reported Firm-Level Trade Data Reliable? Evidence from the UK

In this paper we compare firms’ self-reported overseas sales, as reported in a commonly used UK financial reporting dataset, with their actual exports, as reportedby Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC). Finding that these flows are inseveral dimensions quite different, we then explore the implications of these differ-ences more formally. Since several studies within the international trade literature report findings based on the self-reported export values in financial datasets, wediscuss these findings in light of the departure of financial dataset-based exportsfrom “true” (HMRC) export values.